We think of the Arctic as a pristine wilderness still untouched by human hand. These shocking images dispel that myth in brutal fashion.

One shows a reindeer who died after becoming tangled in a plastic fishing net – just one piece of masses of plastic waste found in the Arctic.

The velvet covering its antlers was ripped away during the creature’s desperate struggle to free itself, and its corpse is left bloodied by its ultimately futile efforts.

This dead reindeer was entangled in pieces of plastic fishing net in northern Norway

This polar bear is dragging a large fishing net which has been dumped in the ocean

This bird has been snared on small pieces of rope probably lost from fishing boats

Other heart-rending pictures show Arctic terns, polar bears and seals ensnared in plastic nets and ropes.

The photos, released by the Norwegian Polar Institute, are stark reminder that it is not just turtles and fish that can die from man littering the planet with plastic.

Geir Wing Gabrielsen, who co-wrote a report on the high levels of microplastics in sea ice, told BBC News: ‘We are finding more and more plastic waste in Svalbard. The northern fulmar breeds in Svalbard. At the end of the 1970s we found very few [pieces of] plastic in their stomachs.

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‘In 2013 when we last investigated, some had more than 200 pieces of plastic in their stomachs. Other creatures are getting entangled in nets washed up on beaches – like reindeer.

‘Some die because they can’t release their antlers – we find them every year.’

Tens of thousands of discarded fishing nets have been found in the Norwegian Arctic during beach clean-ups. Fishing nets are a big source of plastic pollution on the Arctic island of Svalbard, with an estimated 80 per cent of plastic rubbish coming from fishing.

This seal has been snared by a piece of rope which has been caught around his middle

Much of the debris found was relating to the fishing or maritime industries

Sections of rope can cause significant problems for fish, birds and marine mammals

The ropes often get shredded into finer and finer strands, meaning they can be easily swallowed by animals.

However, there is also other rubbish of all kinds from all over the world. Researchers found a plastic butter tub from Spain, a yellow strip of plastic from the US, a plastic container from the Azores and plastic buoys from the Florida Keys and Canada.

Morrisons ditches the 5p plastic bag

Morrisons has joined the other ‘big four’ supermarkets in ceasing to offer 5p throwaway plastic bags.

The move will take approximately 190million bags out of circulation each year.

It comes after Asda last week said it would stop selling the 5p bags, following earlier decisions by Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

The decision is a victory for the Daily Mail’s ten-year campaign to highlight the dangers of plastic pollution.

The introduction of the 5p bag levy in England in October 2015 has reduced the number of single use bags handed out by retail chains by more than 80 per cent – more than 6billion a year.

Morrisons said it would begin phasing out the 5p bags in March, adding: ‘We are listening to customers and they’re telling us they want to reduce the amount of plastic getting out into the environment.’

n Friends of the Earth is today launching its ‘Plastic Free Friday’ campaign, urging people to live without plastic every Friday. Keep Britain Tidy is also trying to recruit 400,000 volunteers to take part in the Great British Spring Clean, a mass litter pick from March 2 to 4.

The revelations come as the Daily Mail campaigns to end the tide of plastic polluting our land and seas. Bo Eide, an environment consultant for Tromsø Council in the Arctic Circle, conducts litter-picking on the beaches. He collected 30 tonnes of litter – much of it plastic – from the shores of Svalbard last year alone.

‘People see the pictures in brochures of the pristine Arctic and they book their holidays to come here,’ he said.

‘They’re sometimes rather shocked to find that the Arctic in close-up is no longer how it looks in the brochures.’

As well as fears for Svalbard’s 10,000-strong reindeer population, fishermen also worry about the effect of the pollution on their catches. Jan Roger Lerbukt, manager of Hermes Fishing in Tromsø, said: ‘Fishing has been in our soul for thousands of years. If there’s any environmental threat to the fish it’s also a threat to our livelihood and that’s a big concern.

‘We have a reputation for a pure product and we don’t want that damaged.’

He said that trawler crews used to throw tangled nets overboard, but they now they return them to harbour. They also salvage plastic litter they catch, under a scheme called Fishing for Litter.

Norway’s environment minister Ola Elvestuen said: ‘It’s disturbing – there’s nowhere on Earth that’s so far away that it’s not affected by plastics. This should be a call for action. It’s been known about for years, but the magnitude of it hasn’t been taken in as it should have been. We must stop the plastic pollution.’

Plastic bottles have the ability to float across the globe and last for years

The plastic products are difficult to break down and remain in the ocean for generations